1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and method. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a system and method for searching a computing device for confidential content and reporting back any policy violations.
2. Description of Related Art
Maintaining the security of confidential files, e.g., image files, document files, data files, and the like, is a major concern for both government and business organizations. If an organization is not able to control the dissemination of their confidential files, many potentially harmful disclosures of information may occur. The consequences of such harmful disclosures may cause an organization to lose market share, lose trade secrets, or, in the case of government organizations, may actually lead to placing individuals in harm's way.
Typically, an organization has a written policy for ensuring the security of such files, however the implementation of this written policy is left up to the individual employees of the organization. For example, an organization may require that all electronic mail attachments be encrypted, however it is left up to the employee to actually abide by the policy. Whenever a security policy is left up to a human being for implementation, a potential source of error exists where the security policy may not be followed, or at least may not be followed in every situation.
Recently, desktop search engines have been developed for searching a user's own computer. These desktop search engines are client resident programs that search and index electronic mail, files, web browser history, and instant messages on a client computer's storage device. Examples of such desktop search engines include Google Desktop™, X1 Desktop™, and Microsoft Windows Vista™.
With these desktop search engines, a user may enter search terms into a field of the search engine and the search engine will search the electronic mail, files, web browser history, and instant messages to identify those entities that contain that search term. The search term may be found in the content of the entity, meta-tags of the entity, or the like. Results of the search may then be provided to the user. In this way, the user is able to obtain easy access to information on their personal computer by performing a text, search term based, search.